Progress on the Wake Island Front

And for my next trick....

I've had this scenario booklet nearly ready for some time, dealing with the Japanese attempt to capture Wake Atoll in December 1941. Several scenarios are built, mostly historical ones, with a few what ifs as well, such as what if the USS Saratoga reinforced Wake with the Brewster Buffaloes that were tasked to increase the American fighter presence - that sort of thing. While I have thirteen scenarios created I decided to drop what I had into Gemini and let AI take a look. It wound up creating a few more encounters and making suggestions to my existing ones, but as always with AI one must double check the work as I think the new offerings might be duplicates of scenarios I already have in the booklet. But if not, the booklet will be expanded a bit.

Currently the booklet, like the other two previously mentioned, comes in a hair above twenty pages, Using lulu.com as my print on demand service, with premium color and 80# coated paper, the price points on these booklets are about $12.50 USD, which I have added in a slight margin for my time. If I go to standard color and normal weight paper, it shaves maybe a dollar. My goal is certainly not to make money, but to offer more scenarios for Check Your 6! and Check Your 6! Jet Age gamers, and I have had other works printed with the better quality options ad really like how they have turned out.

I still plan to create more scenario booklets that feature specific topics, like the 99th Fighter Squadron flying P-40s (over twenty-five scenarios), the 49th Pursuit Group near Darwin, a dozen scenarios oddly enough also featuring P-40s, and a Taiwan crisis booklet that would feature the P-47N model for the early scenarios and the later 1958 conflict that features the Sabre. This would see over forty scenarios if all make the cut.

Progress on the Project Gun-Val Front

As I have but little left to do on the Slovakian-Hungarian War scenario booklet, I thought I would start work on another self-published booklet, this one on the Project Gun-Val F-86F-2 Sabre used during the Korean War in 1953. I have fourteen scenarios in the can for this one, ranging in size from four to fourteen planes on the table, with two to seven players. This project should be ready for publishing within a couple of weeks as I go through and update the formatting for the scenarios.

There are a few special rules in this one, mostly dealing with the gun system on the Gun-Val Sabre, but also some changes I felt that were needed for the MiG-15. I have read a slew of first person accounts, and I believe the weapons system on the MiG needs a little tweaking (you can read about my thoughts on this topic HERE).

This will make two scenario books that will be ready for the Check Your 6! gaming crowd, with more forthcoming!

Oh Canada!

111 Squadron Kittyhawk Mk IA of Kenneth Boomer

Going back to a bit of an Aleutian theme with this post, as I wanted to delve deeper into the Canadian involvement in the Aleutian Campaign, and I have to say there wasn't much of one from a front line perspective. After seeing numerous photos in The Aleutian Warriors - A History of the 11th Air Force & Fleet Air Wing 4 by John H. Cloe, I was hoping to locate more information on the Canadian participation in active duty against the Japanese, but have been a bit disappointed in that aspect. That is not to take away the importance of the RCAF and their Bristol Bolingbrokes (license built versions of the Blenheim Mk IV) and Curtiss Kittyhawks in filling a support function, there is but one mission in which 111 Squadron took an active part. 

By late summer 1942, Allied forces initiated the "Kiska Blitz." On September 25, a massive joint US-Canadian strike force took advantage of a break in the fog to hammer the occupied island. The operation was immense by Aleutian standards, with nine Consolidated B-24 Liberators, twelve Bell P-39 Airacobras, and twenty Curtiss P-40 Warhawks/Kittyhawks taking part. To bolster the overstretched 11th Air Force, the RCAF deployed four pilots from 111 Squadron, under the command of Squadron Leader Kenneth A. Boomer, a veteran with service in England. The flight from 111 Squadron was assigned to fly close and high cover in company with the USAAF 11th Fighter Squadron's P-40s. The Japanese 452nd Kokutai managed to scramble airborne resistance, but the severe weather and relentless bombing meant they only had two A6M2-N Rufes in flight-ready condition.

After protecting the bombers, the Allied fighters dropped down to strafe the harbor. In the ensuing low-altitude skirmish, Squadron Leader Boomer engaged the floatplanes and successfully shot down one of the Rufes, marking the only recorded RCAF air-to-air kill over North American soil during the Second World War.

Of course, this led to the creation of a scenario, starting with the Canadians after they completed the bomber escort portion of their mission. Next will be to buy even more P-40E models from Flight Deck Decals (need to buy more anyway to use with my Blue Falcon Hobbies 49th Fighter Group decals). Here is the single Canadian combat during the Aleutian Campaign:

Oh Canada!